Schoolin' On the Road

Mar. 20, 2008

My Goodness

I can't believe that I haven't been blogging here. I do have another blog that I don't blog about homeschooling on, but I use it for documenting the knitting I do and the traveling that we do for our business. I post pictures on there from our travels and I love blogging, but I don't always blog like I should.

We are still homeschooling (since our situation hasn't changed any) and DS is progressing well. He is ahead in math because it's how his brain works, and he loves art and writing, and reads well for his age. That's something that I encourage and don't restrict him to what is supposedly his age group. I have gotten in the habit of giving him the classics to read and he enjoys them. Another set of books that he loves is anything by G.A. Henty, which are great adventure books, historically accurate but fictional. They are one of the first things that he requests when asked about birthday or Christmas gifts, and he loves them on his mp3 player or on cd.

We did change this year and put some more emphasis on phonics and language. We are still using switched on schoolhouse for language arts science, but have started using Teaching textbooks which are wonderful. He's getting to the point in math that I'm not much help anymore and so the teachers and instruction in the program is wonderful for teaching concepts that baffle me. I also added more writing and a spelling program. I felt the SOS didn't address the spelling adequately and I want him to be able to spell. We also started doing some creative writing with paragraph structure and all. One of the things that I am thankful for is the fact that he is very good about following a plan and will do what he's supposed to, although he will try to get out of doing whatever he can. He really hates it when I spot check his work and he's "forgotten" to do something and then he has to do schoolwork on Saturday...bummer.

We are going to start working on our garage this spring...yay. The house wont be far behind. I can hardly wait.

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Jun. 1, 2007

Let's see...it's been about 2 and a half months since I posted. Things school wise are going about the same. We are still working through Switched on Schoolhouse for Math, Language Arts and Science. DS is doing reasonably well...he's got high B's according to the grading scale that AOP puts out for use with Switched on Schoolhouse. I thought about changing to a more lenient grading scale when I set up the program, but I decided that an 8 point scale is good. It makes him reach a little more, when he cares about grades, and may give me a more accurate picture of his standings. Not that I really care about that, but I do want him to do well.

I think for next year, we are going to change the math program to Teaching Textbooks. They guys who put this together are way smarter in math than I am, and I like the way that they have the tutorials and the teaching. The only drawback to this program, is that it doesn't start until 5th grade math. That's okay for me, cuz ds tested at math 6. I am okay with remembering the simple stuff, but I sometimes have to look at the answer for a problem for me to figure out how to work some of the problems, and I am not stupid in math. Another reason for changing, and I really hate this, but the SOS program that we are using has some stupid errors in it. It's stuff like transposed numbers so that the student can never get the answer right or just plain bad math. I would have thought that a program as well used and available as SOS would have corrected those things, but I guess not everything is perfect.

I am staying with Story of the World for a history program. DS loves it and now that we have the tests and the activity book, he seems to learn a lot and loves learning the chronology of history. I also may try to get some of the advanced reading books for next year so that he can learn a little more in depth.

This summer is going to be spent reviewing the math that he seems to get lazy on and "forget". He knows how to do it, but he hates having to use paper and pencil to figure things out, so this summer he is going to be doing a lot of paper and pencil work in fractions, decimals, division and multiplication. I think that drill is a good thing and he will get a couple of months of practice before we start the new school year.

I think, cuz I haven't looked in the last couple of days, that we are within a couple of weeks of finishing SOS. I am going to add some writing, at least more than SOS has next year, starting with simple paragraphs. I have a highly creative son, and he likes to write, but the structure just isn't there. We are going to remedy that. We are also going to continue with handwriting practice. I was sent a new program for copy work in my email, and I think that I am going to download several of those and use them this summer and through the next year. You can find them at Happy Scribe Copybooks. I have used some of Westvon Publishing things before and they are high quality and something that are affordable and make homeschooling just a little easier. They are also the publishers of The History Scribe, RockHound Kids, and Study Starters. They put out some good stuff.

I am still on the fence about using SOS again next year for Language arts and Science. The science program works for us quite well because it teaches the science that he needs and it fits our lifestyle right now. We may add a better more indepth program when we get our house built, but for now it is good.

Language Arts is a tough one. I feel he needs more spelling and a better writing program, so do I stay with SOS and add spelling and writing, or try and find something that has more spelling and writing?

I have started a new hobby, I think that I have written about before, but I am knitting...a lot. I am working on socks, and dishcloths, and garments for other people. Helps to pass the time on the truck...yay.

In May, my husbands middle son got married in Virginia Beach. We were able to go to the wedding, although it was a little dicey there for a bit and it was a lovely ceremony held at a country club in the club house in Chesapeake, VA. Now if we could just get the other two married off.....

If you want to check out what else we have been doing, check out My Other Blog, my knitting and traveling blog.

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Mar. 14, 2007

Another Month gone by

and I am back to blogging here. I have been blogging on my knitting blog more than here because I have been doing a lot of knitting and nothing much has changed on the school front. We have gotten much better about doing a schedule and expecting ds to stick to it, which really makes it easier on all of us.

I had been not making him do some of the experiments and things that come up in his schooling because of our situation and there just not being the room, or us not having the resources and things like that. I started really looking at some of the things that I had let him slide on and realized that while he may not be able to do them exactly the way the directions explain them, he could do an abbreviated version of some of them and so that is something that he has been doing. There were several reports that stated that he needed X number of resources and he was able to use the encarta encyclopedia that is on his computer and we could, although I hate to let him, get on the internet for some more information. So far he has found what he needs in the encyclopedia and his reports are going well.

Last week we had an oversized load. That means that in most states we could only travel during daylight hours, couldn't travel if the weather was bad, etc. We were coming across South Dakota when that big storm blew through there and the DOT officer at the scales kindly suggested, in the special way that only a DOT officer can, that we go a few miles down the road to Rapid City and park because the roads were closed and we couldn't travel. So on Friday morning about 10 a.m. local time, we got stopped and sat until Monday morning. It was kind of a comedy of errors and bad weather that didn't allow us to move, but it all worked out in the end.

On Sunday of that weekend, we attended church in the truck stop. Our family of three increased the population of the service 300%. There was us and one other driver and then three people from a local church. The other driver suggested that we take a little road trip and go to Mount Rushmore. My husband kindly consented to drop our trailer and we took a little trip and went to see Mount Rushmore and then also to Crazy Horse Mountain. They are both awesome examples of American ingenuity and the ability of the human to envision something so awesome and then actually carry it out. If you would like to look at some of the pictures I took you can look Pictures of Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse.

One of the cool things that came out of our trip was that the ds became a Jr. Ranger. This is a program in all of the National Parks and Monuments. The children are given a booklet and they use it to find out information about the park and when they have the booklet filled out they take it to a Ranger and they are asked questions to see what their level of comprehension is and then they are given a little plastic badge that states they are a Jr. Ranger. DS was the one who wanted to do it, he went to the info desk when we got inside, and he did all of the info in the book himself and then took it to the desk to get his badge. The ranger that quizzed him asked some really hard questions and then if DS couldn't answer them, he used a process that lead DS to finding the answer himself. I was impressed with the ranger and the time he spent with our son.

The next stop was the Crazy Horse Mountain memorial. This is a very large complex that houses a Native American Indian museum and several other things. They have a very good movie as an introduction to the site and then you can wander through the museum, see the models that are being used as the basis for the mountain and if you are so inclined, you can grab a bite at the snack bar and visit the original studio for the artist. It too was awe inspiring and the plans, while they may not be completed in my lifetime, are quite ambitious. They plan to have a medical school for Native Americans, a very large museum, etc. One of the most interesting things about visiting there is the fact that it has been funded 100% by private donation and entrance fees. It costs $10.00 per person or $25.00 a car load to enter. All proceeds go towards the costs of maintaining what they have and continuing construction on the mountain. I at first thought that the price was too much and almost told DH that we didn't need to go. I am so glad that I didn't. It was well worth visiting and I would actually like to go back early in the summer before the crowds really jam things up, and see the things that we couldn't and also see the laser light show that they do at night.

We have been through some extremes in weather in the last couple of weeks. We have been in Laredo, TX in 80 degree weather, went to Washington which was cool and then hit that awful winter storm with temps well below zero and blowing snow, high winds, ice, and just flat out ugly weather. Then we went back to Laredo and now we are in Tennessee and it makes you almost makes me think that Spring is here....YAY.

God Bless and take care....

The traveling schoolers

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Feb. 16, 2007

Brrrr!!!!!!!

It is sooooo cold. We were caught in that clipper that roared through the midwest and the east coast this past week and thought we were going to freeze to death. We were at home for most of last week while the dh did some repairs to the truck (they NEVER end) and because freight is so slow. Our dispatcher asked if we wanted to be home for the weekend last Monday and we said no....so we get a load that delivers 2 miles from my sister's house on Tuesday and then we didn't get a load again until this Tuesday, just as that nasty weather was hitting the Shenandoah Valley. We got out just ahead of it really hitting the house, but went west into the teeth of the storm.

We parked for the night in a rest area in Ohio and when we got up, there were 3-6 foot drifts around the truck and all of the trucks that were parked there were having trouble getting out of their parking spaces. Not only that, it was bitter cold (2 degrees + windchill). We waited for some of the trucks to fight their way out and then a couple of plow trucks showed up to plow the rest area out and we were able to wait for them to move some of the snow and then they helped us get off of the ice with some salt and away we went. We delivered yesterday in the Chicago metro area and it was so cold there that my hands hurt even with gloves on.

Things are looking up though.....we are on our way to Corpus Christie area where hopefully it will be warm and we won't have to be bundled up so much.

School is going well. We are still working on the same things that we have been all year, except for Christmas I bought the ds a drawing program that teaches him the mechanics of drawing so that he understands how to make his drawings look like what he wants them to, and he doesn't get so frustrated. He loves the program and wishes that he could do more than he is assigned each day. He loves the fact that he is able to draw something that looks like the teacher tells him it should. I like that he is learning way more than I understand about drawing by someone who teaches drawing for a living. It's a win/win situation and I would highly recommend the program which is call the Phonics of Drawing.

I'm still trying to find the best way to teach the multiplication tables to my son so that he memorizes them but does so in a fun way that is so intimidating. I have a couple of different programs that I haven't tried yet, but the ones that I have he thinks are "dumb" or the music is bad or whatever. I will keep trying because that is the one thing that we need to do that he hasn't mastered yet and it's partly laziness on his part and frustration on mine.

I think that's about all for now. I have really been picking up on my knitting and have created a knitting blog that for some reason seems to get more entries than this one does. If you want to see it it is at Knitting on the road.

Have a blessed week and I will post again soon.

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Jan. 17, 2007

I will never get the hang of this

I did an entry last week when we finally got back on the road from Christmas and multiple truck repairs and I guess i forgot to save it, because I came in and looked to see when I had done it and found out that it wasn't there.

As I stated we are back on the road after the break for Christmas which was supposed to only be a week and turned into three. My dh decided that there were a couple of things that needed to be repaired on the truck that were relatively minor, but when we took the truck in it ended up needing about $9000 in repairs. Thank God that we have the wherewithall to be able to pay for repairs like that and that we weren't on the road and had to stay in a hotel, which would have cost several hundred dollars more than it did with being able to stay with my sister.

We had a pleasant Christmas with my family and then the day after Christmas we went to see my dh's grown ds's. That was fun for us as we actually got to pawn the not grown ds off on one of his other brothers and we got some alone time. The visit with the kids left a little to be desired, but there again, thank God we have the ability and the wherewithall to be able to keep in touch with them in such a way. My dh really tries hard to keep the relationship with his boys up, but they have lives of their own and we really aren't a part of that. Oh well. One of the most discouraging things that happened while we were there was that we got into a theological discussion with the oldest and found that he really doesn't have a clue about the gospel and how to be saved. He really overthinks things and thinks that everyone will be in Heaven and only the really bad people will be in hell. He believes that he needs to compare all types of religions and use a conglomeration of them all to get to Heaven. It makes me sad and nothing we could say would change his perspective.

It is sooooo good to get back on the road and get back into our routine. We did take a couple of weeks off of school, but started back shortly after the New Year. It was a little bit hard at my sister's. She homeschools her children, but all three of them are in different grades and we are using different curriculums. Our ds is using a combination of SOS and book work. I think that maybe I am not keeping it challenging enough for him, because he finishes, when he applies himself with in 3 hours. My niece, who is a couple grades a head of him takes several hours to do her work. I don't know what the answer is, but I know that we are doing what is right for our family even if I have to tweak it some.

At Thanksgiving we went to my Mom's for the holiday. When we got there she had this wonderful hand knitted dishcloth that my aunt had given her. My aunt is really good at making things like that and then only giving one so I decided that I would go online and get the stuff to make some more for my Mom for Christmas. I ended up making 6, some from patterns and others I made up. I gave three to my Mom and three to my sister. They loved them. So now I have another hobby of things to do on the truck. I have a couple three projects going right now and have joined a couple of knit-a-longs (KAL's). One of them is for hand knitted socks and another is for dishcloths. They are fun to do and give you a whole repetoire of things to give out for gifts. I think if I can that all of the gifts we give for Christmas next year will be hand made. That should be less costly and may mean more than store bought gifts for people that really don't NEED anything.

I am going to try and get better about this, so we'll see how often you actually hear from me this next year. Hopefully a lot more often than the last year.

Have a blessed New Year and Think Spring!!!

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Oct. 1, 2006

Fall is in the Air -

and we are really enjoying the changing of the seasons. We have found that the summer clothes that we were wearing just last week are just not warm enough for the northern climes that we are going through and yet when we head south, we still need them. What's a person supposed to do when we never know where we are going to be and what we are going to need for the weather and have VERY limited space for a wardrobe? We make out, but it is a constant challenge.

We have had some interesting experiences in the last couple of months. We were "stuck" in Oklahoma City for Labor Day weekend and got to do a couple of things that we have been wanting to do in that town. I really like Toby Keith's music, and so we were able to go the The Toby Keith "I Love this Bar and Grill. It was fun, and we sat out on the patio and enjoyed dinner next to the man made river that runs through Bricktown. It was a lot pricey, but it's one of those things that we wanted to do once and now we can say that we've been there, done that and don't have to go back.

While in OKC for the weekend I made a drastic change in my appearance. I have had long hair for several years now, and decided that enough was enough, and I got 10-11 inches cut off. I love it and so does the DH, which was who kept telling me I needed long hair. It's much easier to take care of and I can still put it up and keep it out of my face.

We finally got all the parts needed to break down the computer that the ds was using for his school work last year and install everything onto the new computer that he is going to use this year. It is amazing how much time it takes to reorganize everything so that the system works again. Now he is finishing off third grade while still doing some things for fourth grade, but should finish everything this week or the middle of next week and then start fourth grade in earnest. One of the things about homeschooling is that we do it all year round, so it is not really a big deal that he won't be starting his school year until the middle of October. We will just be doing school until the first of July next year and then won't have quite the gap to fill in that we had this year.

I never realised how much harder school got in fourth grade until we started working through the items that I picked up for the summer. It is in the fourth grade that kids have to learn the multiplication tables (which ds says he hates with a passion); the writing and stuff that they do becomes much more precise, so we are on a constant quest to keep the ds from disliking things so much while making it easier for him to learn. We also have decided that we are going to continue to use the Switched on Schoolhouse for Math, Language Arts and Science and use a devotional and Jones Bible curriculum for his Bibe and start the History of the World for History. I got really discouraged and disgruntled last year when the history and geography program was more geared towards the politically correct way of teaching about the community, and less geared toward teaching children about HISTORY. I also don't want the ds to go through school and not get a good understanding about the history, and not the revised history that is taught in schools today, of our world and even more specifically, our country. He seems to have a much better grasp of geography, at least of the US, than most kids his age, and I know that that comes from travelling the country as we do.

OK, I think I have rambled on enough for one night, and will call it quits and join the rest of my family in bed. We have to go to Astoria, OR tomorrow, which is someplace that we have never been, so we will get to see the Pacific Ocean in a new place.

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Aug. 18, 2006

Oh My GOODNESS

Here it is August and the whole summer has just slipped away and I have been sooooooo forgetful about writing in the blog.
We have had a busy summer... Chris and I got off the truck for all the month of July because we got to go to the beach in Virginia Beach with my sister. she had to go down for a class for her work and wanted to take her girls. She needed someone to babysit the girls while she was in class and I volunteered. I couldn't pass up a "free" trip to the beach where we got to stay in the beachfront Hilton hotel for four days at no cost to me. I'm no dummy, I couldn't pass that up. A good time was had by all and we spent a lot of time at the three pools that the hotel had and some time at the beach. We saw a lot of Virginia Beach and my son got to spend an evening with his three grown half brothers, who all live in Va Beach.
We got back from the beach, and we put our pickup in for repairs because the cruise control and the four wheel drive were'nt working. That took a whole week to get fixed and then Chris and I headed off to Colorado to visit my parents. They live up on a mountain about 12-14 miles from where we own land, so it was kind of a twofold trip for us. We moved our pickup out there so that we have transportation when we are there, and we also will have the truck there for when we start building our house. Hubby came to pick me up the last week in July and he and I made a short trip to Oklahoma while youngin' stayed with his papa and nena and we got some alone time. Then we took a load back to the Denver area and went back to Canon City for four days of running around and visiting my grandmother and other things.
So here it is the third week in August and we are trying to get back to our routine and have ds do school and stuff. I have to reinstall his school program on the new computer, because we were two weeks from having school done when his computer blew up. He will finish the end of grade three and go right into grade four, even though he has been doing book work all summer for grade four. I think that it is important for him to finish the other lessons and then do the new ones.
Where has the summer gone? We are in Montana, and it has been warm and nice during the day, but chilly (we're talking flannel nighties, cool) in the evening and at night. I can feel fall and winter coming.

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May. 2, 2006

All better now...

that I have had the weekend and a couple of days to reflect, I realise that the feelings that I was having, while justified, were blown out of proportion for the circumstances. I let my feelings get the better of me, and was unable to see that maybe things will work out and what I'm "feeling" isnt all that it's about."
We are in Phoenix, AZ and boy is it HOT!!!! I have come to the conclusion that I am not a really hot weather girl. Give me nothing higher than about 90 degrees and I would be in heaven. This is just extremely too hot and it is not pleasant. Relief is on it's way as we are on the way to Washington (Seattle area) and it should be cooler up there.

Homeschooling on the truck is still going extremely well. The DS, while continually saying he dislikes it, is learning and doing well. He seems to get lazy on occasion and instead of reading the directions, he wants me to give him the answer, but thats just because he doesn't want to have to think. I guess all kids go through that, but I wish I knew how to give him back the love of schooling that he used to have. I have tried to give him several things that I know he loves, like drawing and sketching, as part of his school, but I still believe that he needs to have the basics. Some days are better than others, and if I can find things to reward his doing his work with the minimal amount of fussing, we seem to do better.

The teacher from the kindegarten class that DS is writing to is still thrilled with the information and the cards he's sending. I'm thinking that next year, if we are still on the truck, that I might check into the trucker buddy program and have him write to a class of kids more his own age that would be studying similar things so that they would have a little something in common.

I''ll stop by again and give an update, not that anyone ever reads them, but that's okay because it gives me somewhere to express what I think and feel and that is the purpose of blogging.

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Apr. 27, 2006

Disappointment....

Have you ever really wanted to do something that due to circumstances out of your control was cancelled because of other people that seem to have more control over your life than you do.

We had planned to go to the Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival this weekend. We were going to make it a mini-vacation for our family and we made reservations for the hotel. Made reservations for the rental car and gave our fleet manager 6 weeks notice that we needed to have a delivery to Los Angeles today or tomorrow. Are we anywhere near Los Angeles? NO!!!!! Are we anywhere near California? NO, NO, NO. We are in Oklahoma City, OK with a load to pick up tomorrow morning in Tulsa. It is going to L.A., but we couldn't get there until Saturday night at the earliest and probably not until Sunday sometime. With it being the last day of the festival, people are wanting to pack up and go home, so we wouldn't be able to see much and I am angry.

This is the third time in the last three months that this man has taken it upon himself to royally stick it to us. We wanted to go to a festival in February in Ellensburg, WA. The closest he could get us was over two hundred miles away, and with the cost of fuel, we decided that we couldn't drive up there on our own. Then in March, we wanted to go to the Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, KY. The closest he could get us to that was Memphis, TN. On that one, we decided to go ahead and drive the 400 miles up there on our own. We missed the first day and a half of the show, but we were able to get there for half of Friday and all of the abreviated Saturday. Now we are dealing with this. I'm so angry at this man, and yes I know I shouldn't be, that I could spit nails. I want to send him a message on the computer and tell him what a jerk I think he is, but I don't think that it would do any good. I guess I'll just stew in it for a while .

Any way....school is going very well. Having a program that keeps score for you helps me to see exactly what he's doing and what I need to have him work on. He has got at least a 90% in every subject that he is doing, plus he has a number of extras that I add for him to do on alternate days.

The country is starting to green up everywhere that we have been. The kindegarten class that my ds writes to seems to really enjoy all of the cards that they are sent. The teacher has a map and they track the different states that we have been to with stickers and they talk about the places that we have been. We also try to pick up some information about the states, or at least some of them, and send that with it. We stopped in a rest area in Iowa and sent them some information about the Lewis and Clark expedition that we picked up there. She was able to read some of the journal pages to the children and then they talked about the fact that Lewis and Clark started their expedition in Charlottesville, VA, which is very close to where they are.

I hope that everyone is enjoying the spring weather and are enjoying having your children home where you can enc ourage and control what they are taught and what character traits they develop.

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Mar. 31, 2006

Where does the time go?

March is at an end, 1/4 of this new year is gone, and I don't know where it has gone.

Since the last installment of the chronicles of the intrepid travellers, we have again criss crossed the country. We have been in several states, seen weather that ranged from high 70's to 10-15 degrees and been in snow, rain and been blessed with warm sunny days.

We spent 2 days at the Mid-america Truck show in Louisville, KY on the weekend of the 24th and 25th of March. What an amazing trade show. There was over 1 million square feet of show space and almost 90 thousand people showed up to visit the booths from the truck manufacturers, suppliers and a host of other gizmos, gadgets and supplements. We decided to get an XM radio for the truck. That has been a wonderful addition to our life. We are now able to stay abreast of what is going on in the world, listen to bluegrass music or christian music or ....... and not lose it as we are just getting involved in the program.

Having our son pen pal with a kindegarten class has been kind of fun. They are extremely excited to get the post cards and the teacher is able to use them to help teach her class. She is able to use the information that is on the postcards to do mini lessons with her students to keep them excited and interested. Our son enjoys telling the children about where he's been and what he's seen.

We are heading out now from Seattle, WA to cross the whole country and go to Jacksonville, FL. It's beautiful here todau and I imagine it will be loverly when we get to Florida. I just question what the weather will be like in the mid section of the country.

Until next time....

The intrepid travellers

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Mar. 18, 2006

Here it is....

another couple of months since the last time that I have done anything on this and I am feeling like I am such a terrible blogger.

But I do know that it isn't necessarily about how much you blog, but what you have to say. I will try to be a little better about doing this but sometimes life just gets in the way.

Well since we left home at Christmas, we have cris-crossed the country a couple of times. We have gone from coast to coast, but haven't been in the south much until this last week. We had a delivery to make in South Carolina and now we are going to Mississippi and Louisiana. It is nice to be somewhere where we don't have to bundle up just to get out of the truck. It has been extremely cold in the plains states when we go through and we have gotten stuck in some nasty weather.

One of the things that we have been able to do in the last couple of months is to take a load from Chicago to Prosser, WA. We did so by going across US Highway 20. We got caught in a blizzard in Laramie, WY. We left Laramie and went over Togwattee Pass. What an example of the greatness of God. The area over the pass is one of the most beautiful areas of our country. There was approximately six feet of snow on either side of the road and there were snowmobile tracks all over the place. The meadows and the valleys up there are just beautiful.

After coming down off the pass we came into Grand Teton National park. We were hoping to see the Tetons, but because of low lying clouds we were only able to see the bottoms. I wanted my DH and DS to see them because they are some of the most majestic mountains in the country and neither of them have seen them. I lived in Yellowstone park when I was in high school and have seen the Tetons many times. That was something that I wanted to share but was unable to because of the weather. That's okay, it gives us a reason to go back sometime.

Something else that has happened is that we met a kindegarten teacher one evening as we were going to dinner. We got to talking and when she found out that we homeschooled on the truck and that our DS got to travel all over the country, she was all excited. In the course of the conversation we made arrangements for the DS to write to her class of kindegartners. So now, as we travel we pick up post cards and send them from different places. He also will send the occasional letter and pictures of the different things that we see. He gets the exprerience of writing letters and postcards and the class in Virginia gets to hear firsthand little glimpses of the areas that we go to.

You know, we are so blessed. We are together as a family, we are able to spend the time together that we wouldn't be able to if my DH were to be on the road all the time by himself. We get to see this country like most people are unable to and we get to meet people everywhere we go.

We have a wonderful life, even if it isn't the traditional life that most people think of. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to everyone, but it is one way to constantly be in contact with your family and to have a great deal of control and input in what your child(ren) learn(s). I know that a lot of homeschoolers homeschool because of the trash that is presented in the public school and because it is the best option for them. We started to homeschool out of necessity due to our lifestyle, but I think that we will continue even after we have our house built and we aren't on the road constantly just because of the freedom and the lack of restriction.

Until next time.....

The intrepid travellers

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Jan. 13, 2006

What a Bad......

blogger I am.

Here it has been more than a month since I blogged anything and so much has happened in that time.

We were finally able to make it home for Christmas (on the 23rd) and had a nice time with my family. My oldest son turned 21 the 27th and we all (his grandparents, my family and my sister's family and a couple of his freinds) all went to breakfast at Cracker Barrel. After breakfast was over and we went back to my sister's house and packed we left her house to drive down to Virginia Beach for a couple of days to visit my DH's oldest 3 sons. That was an interesting visit, with the added benefit that we were able to farm out the DS for a night and we got some alone time in a really nice beachfront hotel. You know, when you live on a truck, you don't get a lot of alone time, so we grab it when we can and thoroughly enjoy it.

We left to go back to work on the 30th and picked up a load going to Arkansas, which was supposed to be on the way to Louisiana, where our new trailer was finally awaiting us, or would be when we got to Monroe.
We sat from Monday to Wednesday and finally decided to eat the miles that it would take us to get from a small town in the middle of Arkansas to Monroe, LA. We got there Thursday and finally got our new trailer outfitted the way the DH wanted it, or almost anyway, and got a load on Monday, so we are back into the swing of things after what seemed like an awfully long break.

I know that I am not the only one, but why is it that when kids get a break, like DS did for the week of Christmas, they think that they should just get a break whenever they want. He is constantly begging to not have to do ______________ and he'll double up tomorrow. I don't let him, of course, because not only does he have to learn, he also needs the constant of a routine. I am not a very routine person, so I sometimes find it hard to make him be a routine person. My DH thinks we have no routine, but we must have some because DS gets his work done everyday (usually before mid-afternoon) and we don't usually have to nag too much.

I hope that anyone and everyone that reads this had a blessed Christmas and was able to center your family on the true meaning of Christmas and the joy that all of that entails. I know that sometimes in the hustle and bustle of the commercial side it is so easy to get sidetracked and lose what the baby in the manger really means to each one of us, but I know and was reminded several times over the holiday, just how special that one little child was for humanity. He came and experienced life as a man so that we would not have to experience death. what a joyous thing to contemplate.

I had mentioned in an earlier post about the DS breaking one of his Bible discs for his schooling and not being able to replace it until the Christmas break. We finally got it and he has already caught up and finished all of the lessons that he was behind for October, November and December, plus all of the new lessons. I think that that has turned out to be his favorite subject for this year and I encourage him with doing all the reading and study he wants to.

Until the next time we meet....

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Dec. 8, 2005

Another Installment in "As the Wheels Turn"

When last we left our intrepid travellers, they were on their way to Seatlle. We now find that they have been to Seattle, back out and over a very snowy and wet Snoqualmie pass, and through the bitter cold of the northern plains states. They are now on their way to Utah, via an icy, snowy and chilly Illinois. The female lead is never so thankful for their nice warm truck as when they have been outside loading the trailer in weather that is rainy and windy and COLD!!!!! Tennesee was cold this afternoon, and one of the hazards of having a flatbed or stepdeck trailer this time of year is that you have to load and unload in miserable weather.

Homeschooling our DS remains a challenge. He is forever "forgetting" to do parts of his assignments. We are also having the problem that I haven't been able to replace the Bible disc of his curriculum and won't until Christmas week when we get home. So his lesson plans keep showing that he is way behind in that. Oh, well. we'll work on it and get it caught up. One of the benefits of it being that subject is that he has a thirst and it wont be a hardship for him to catch it up.

I finally think that I have found the replacement history program that we are going to use. I decided that we would use "History Scribe" and the History timeline books and just kind of work on the Civil War. I know quite a bit about that, I have some resources and we do have internet access, so we can do a third grade unit for the rest of the school year. He's also interested in that and westward expansion so it won't be too awfully difficult.

I was able to catch up with an old highschool friend tonight that I haven't talked to in about three years. That was really neat. It is kind of fun to reminisce with someone that has known you for a large part of your life, even tho we haven't seen each other in 22 years, he doesn't seem to have changed much. We were talking about how old we are (we're both 40, although I'm older) and how sometimes it is so hard to believe that we are old enough to be THIS responsible and have children THIS old.

Well, we are fast approaching our stopping point for the night and I need to end this, so until next time.....

Adieu

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Nov. 28, 2005

It's past the holiday weekend and we are on our way back to Seattle with another oversize load. This one has been especially challenging because of the bad weather that is happening in the northern part of the country, and the rules that govern the movement of a load that is oversized.

Any way, we were able to go to my parent's house for Thanksgiving and had a wonderful day visiting with family and freinds whose house we went to for dinner. After dinner we played a card game called hand and foot for hours. We were split up into two tables of players and had a wonderful time.

On Friday my hbby decided to go with my Dad to do some work on a friends garage and they were gone for 15 hours. I'm thinking that had we known they were going to be gone for so long, my mom and I would have done something fun.

I gave my DS his school work for the day and he had a terrible time settling down and doing it. I finally had to literally tie him to the chair so that he would get it done. We don't have that problem on the truck because there is no where that he can go and he knows that he can't do anything else once school is started until it is done. I think the distraction of the dogs, the horses and just not being on the truck was just too much and he just couldn't sit still. He finally got done and everything got better, but it was iffy there for a while.

I guess that we are back to our regular schedule now, because DS was able to get school done today in the normal amount of time and without a whole lot of trouble.

AS we were travelling across Montana today, I was struck by how beautiful the snow and winter can be. You look out the window from the nice warm truck and can see miles of fields that are covered with snow and be thankful that you are inside and warm, but also be thankful that we live in a nation where we can see all of this and all of the variety of God's creation.

Another thing that we have found to be especially "neat" the last week is that we are reading a book called "Decade of the Wolf" and it is talking about the wolf recovery program in Yellowstone National Park. It is bringing up things that most of us really never would think about. With this program, the ecosystem of Yellowstone is being restored to the way that it was prior to 1926 when the last wild wolf was shot by the park staff. Now people can go into the park and see the wolves interacting with the rest of the animals the way that God intended for them too. It's a really neat read and quite educational. There are small "portraits" of some of the individual wolves, and then a lot of commentary on the people that have worked the program and where the program is and what the future of the wolves is. I am reading this aloud as we drive down the road, so we are all learning.

I hope that everyone had a blessed Thanksgiving!!

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Nov. 18, 2005

After a week...

of sitting in Seattle and getting our truck fixed, we are back on the road. We had a good week in that we were able to do things in Seattle that we have never been able to do before. We went to see Mt. Ranier (if you ever get the chance, please do), we stayed in a hotel, had a rental car, went to visit family, saw the sights, rode the ferry, shopped, ate good food, and had a good week.

I think that one of the highlights of the trip was going and getting a close up and personal view of Mt. Ranier. We were able to go up to the Paradise area of the mountain and see the snow, the wondrous mountain and even a little black fox that was sunning itself in the parking lot of the closed visitor center. Playing in the snow was a lot of fun, the weather was beautiful, and we even got to see the mountain.

All in all, it was a wonderful time and even though it was kind of an enforced vacation, we enjoyed it and made the best of it.

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Nov. 7, 2005

A New Week and .....

here we sit in Seattle, Washington waiting for repairs to be done on our truck. We put it in the shop on Friday for some minor repairs and when we called to find out the status this morning they are saying that we need to have about $5,000 worth of repairs done to the truck. OUCH!!! Not only is it the cost of the repairs, but it is also the cost of the rental car, the hotel room, etc. When you make your living with a truck things like this can put a huge dent in your life.

Schooling is going okay. We are having a problem with our Bible curriculum because one of the discs got broken and we need to get a new set of discs or find a replacement for the disc that got broken.

We have made a good use of some of our time here in Seattle. On Saturday we went to Pike Street Market and poked around for a bit and bought some fresh fruit and cheese and stuff. It is amazing how much fresher things are when you buy them someplace like that rather than in the supermarket.

We stopped to talk to a bee keeper and our DS amazed the him with how much he knew about bees and how able he was to hold a coherent and informative conversation with the man. We subscribe to Discovery Kids magazines and the information in those seems to be fairly comprehensive but done on a level that children can comprehend.

We went to visit some family on Sunday that live in the Seattle area and that was quite fun and our DS was able to play with my aunt's grandson for a few hours. They had a wonderful time running around, playing with cars and such.

It looks like we will be here for a few more days and maybe we will have the time and the inclination to go see Mt. Ranier and some of the other things that are inexpensive or free in the area.

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Nov. 1, 2005

November 1st....

Have you ever had one of those days? It started out okay but then as we were coming across Arizona I decided to call Sprint about a rebate that they offered for my wireless card. I was on hold and arguing with the "Customer Service" representitive for over 45 minutes. It seems that Sprint, as much as they advertise customer service, doesn't really stand behind their offers and their advertisements.

I finally got to go to Wally World today (I hate that store) and get some things that I have been needing for homeschooling. We have our DS doing Switched on Schoolhouse, but he doesn't know how to type, so I got a learn to type program for him that he absolutely loves. He didn't want to quit. Makes my life easier, I'll tell you when he wants to do school.

I really think that he enjoys the SOS and he doesn't want to do the hand writing and other bookwork that we have for him, but I make him do that first and then he gets to do SOS as kind of a reward. Working out well so far.

The weather here is beautiful. It is so nice after the couple of days that we were in blustery weather.

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Oct. 31, 2005

In Texas

Here it is Monday....The 31st of October. We have made it to the panhandle of Texas and will be in Los Angeles tomorrow night and deliver on Wednesday morning. The weather has gotten cold and windy, and I'm looking forward to the warmth of Southern California.

A new week of school, maybe we'll make it through this week without having to do any lessons over again because DS wasn't paying attention and forgot to use the right punctuation or saw the minus sign and actually subtracted instead of adding. We'll see. LOL

I think part of the problem is that he likes school so much (at least the computer part of it) that he is trying to get it done in a reasonable amount of time so that we have a good day that he skims over the directions and thinks he knows what they want before he reads it all.

Enjoy your day and may God richly bless you.

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Oct. 28, 2005

From the right coast to the Left coast

We have been to Chicago, made our deliveries in North Carolina, and now we are on our way to California. As I have said before, with a job like this, you definately get to see the country. We don't go to the Northeast much (tolls are too high) but we have been there.

School is going well. I'm going to have to find something else for a history curriculum here shortly as my DS is just about finished with the one that we were using for the summer. Guess I will start perusing the web sites and find something that I think will be educational and fun, but that teaches history and not just social studies.

I am amazed at how late it is in the year and I am not seeing lots of fall color. Maybe we just keep missing it. :-)

I have gone back and read my entries and it seems like I ramble alot, kind a stream of consciousness, but isn't that what a blog is for.

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Oct. 24, 2005

Made it back......again!

Instead of making it to nearly the coast of North Carolina, we are on our way back to Chicago. We got a message this morning that we needed to have something done to the load that we are on, and therefore, back we go.

School was a little rougher today. Seems that instead of doing all that he was supposed to, DS has become selective about which parts of school he wants to do. What he failed to realise was that when I check his work, I know what he has and hasn't done. He didn't think I could figure out all of that. Thank goodness he can't get into the teacher program that gives me all of the statistics about what he has and hasn't done.

Does anyone else get completely frustrated with the whole struggle for who's going to be the boss? Sometimes I just feel like it's easier to be quite the little dictator and make ds do what he's supposed to do on pain of death and then other times I really have to make myself not give in.

The weather today was icky and rainy and cold and durnit....I'm not ready for winter.

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About Me

The challenges of homeschooling while living on the road.